WINTERSET, IOWA (August 26, 2019) — On Thursday morning, August 29, Iowa National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) member Marcia Sparks will host Iowa Senator Joni Ernst during NFIB’s Small Business Challenge. The idea is for members of Congress to experience the challenges small-business owners face every day. Sen Ernst will get her hands dirty and bake with Marcia while the small business owner explains her biggest challenge: hiring qualified workers and how it's negatively impacting her bakery. Here’s Marcia’s story.
The donuts are delicious, but it’s the bottomless $1 coffee that keeps many of Marcia Sparks’ customers coming back. Marcia started her small business, Bakery Unlimited, 35 years ago and is proud that she serves her entire Winterset, Iowa community.
On Friday mornings, you’ll find the same group of ladies chattering at the long, wooden-corner table. Some of them have been coming for decades, and many of the older women rely on their monthly Social Security checks to get by. Marcia caters to the older crowd and understands that those checks only go so far. That’s why even though the price of coffee has gone up the past three decades, the cost of her bottomless coffee never has.
Quality and reputation. Those are the values Marcia built her small business on. After graduating from Iowa State with a degree in food-nutrition research, Marcia worked in quality-control in the meatpacking industry before her husband’s job took the family to the small Iowa town of Winterset. Marcia gave up her job and a long commute to stay at home with her small kids. However, when she discovered the town bakery had been closed for several years, Marcia saw an opportunity and started Bakery Unlimited in 1984, despite the fact she wasn’t a baker.
What Marcia lacked in training she made up for with hard work. Most of her donuts are made from scratch, which means Marcia starts at 1AM and doesn’t stop until the bakery closes at 5PM. Her five kids grew up in the kitchen — literally: Marcia kept a crib in the back and the kids napped while she baked bread. The Sparks kids quickly learned the challenges of owning a small business: If something doesn't get done, Mom and Dad are left with the burden. Marcia isn’t just a baker: She’s also an accountant and a janitor and orders the supplies, cleans the floors, and takes the garbage out. Marcia has four part-time employees, but says the biggest challenge she faces as a small-business owner is hiring good people — especially in rural Iowa, where finding reliable workers who show up and stay more than a few months is nearly impossible, even though Marcia pays well above minimum wage.
If you can’t decide what to order at Marcia’s counter, she always suggests the apple fritter. Winterset is home to the original Red Delicious apple tree, and Marcia puts fresh bits of the fruit into all her donuts. Doors at Bakery Unlimited open at 5:30AM, and you’ll find Marcia serving her third generation of customers. She credits her longevity to the quality of her product. She never marks down her donuts and even though she’s been tempted to cut corners she hasn’t. However, the older Marcia gets, the more she worries about the future. She and her husband Jim still work more than 60 hours a week. They’d like to retire, but haven’t found anyone willing to run the business for them. Marcia fears she may have to shut her bakery for good when she finally hangs up her apron. That’s why she’s counting on NFIB to help educate lawmakers like Sen Joni Ernst about the challenges small business owners face and how they can help by making policy changes in Washington DC.
For more than 75 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington DC and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is non-profit, non-partisan, and member-driven. Since their founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses, and remains so today. For more information, please visit nfib.com.
